Denver Mayor Michael Hancock has asked each city agency for cost-cutting proposals to close an expected $94 million gap in the 2013 budget — in what has become an annual request as Denver continues to struggle with low revenues and the high cost of civic business.

The mayor is asking for ideas on how to cut as much as $20.8 million from the Police Department and $9.4 million from the Fire Department. But all departments would be asked to find between 7 percent and 10 percent in budget reductions.

The cuts mark what has become an annual trend. Over the past four years, the city has faced $446 million in budget shortfalls — gaps filled through temporary fixes such as furloughs, delaying the replacement of equipment and vehicles, and not holding recruit classes for new police officers.

“Everything remains on the table,” Hancock said, adding, however, that he doesn’t anticipate any layoffs and would like to cease asking employees to take furloughs.

“Everyone is being asked to take a look at their budgets and what they can do to contribute to closing this gap,” he said. “It is still too early to make any assumption, whether it means the library will face cuts or Human Services. These conversations are so early that it is almost hysterical to think that we can predict where we will ultimately end up.”

Last year, then-Mayor Guillermo “Bill” Vidal’s administration asked agencies to anticipate a 10 percent cut, predicting a $100 million shortfall, but the gap wasn’t as big as predicted.

Revenue projections were more positive than first believed, and the city found savings in shuttering vacant positions and not holding police recruit classes.

But those types of savings are becoming tough to continue, said city budget director Brendan Hanlon.

“We are running out of the easier options,” Hanlon said. “You can only go so long.”

The discussion about the cuts is coming as Hancock continues to review recommendations suggested by a community task force that met throughout last year.

The task force worked to help the city figure out what to do about a persistent $30 million gap built into the budget because revenues continue to fall and expenses continue to rise.

Recommendations from the group included charging residents a fee for trash, changing the city’s tax structure and asking for a tax increase for libraries.

Hancock was to announce his intentions in April after the city hosted a series of public meetings about the issue. He later decided to put it off to get more input from businesses and neighborhood organizations.

He said Monday that his team continues to work on figuring out what recommendations to pursue.

But even those decisions — some of which would require approval by voters — wouldn’t affect the 2013 budget.

The City Council must approve the 2013 budget by Nov. 12.

One idea that has been discussed is asking voters to approve a mill levy that could be used to fund the Denver Public Library — or creating a special library taxing district. Hancock’s budget-cut request asks the library to reduce its budget by $2.4 million.

City librarian Shirley Amore wrote in her blog that cutting 7 percent of the library’s budget “would mean even fewer service hours and/or the closing of some branches.”

Last year, the library faced a $2.5 million reduction, which Amore said could be accomplished only by closing half of the library branches.

But due to construction projects at several branches, operating expenses were less than anticipated and created a de facto budget cut.

Also last year, police faced a $24 million cut and budget officials figured that would have amounted to at least 100 fewer officers.

This year, the city is not including possible employee-reduction targets in the budget request because “that created a lot of strain,” Hanlon said.

Nevertheless, costs are expected to continue to increase, with 70 percent of city expenses coming in personnel costs.

All uniformed personnel — fire, sheriff’s and police — are in contract negotiations for next year. The Fire Department union agreed to no raise next year and 1 percent raises in 2014 and 2015. Unions for the Police and Sheriff departments have yet to reach an agreement.

Command staff for the police, fire and sheriff’s offices are going before a City Council committee today to ask for a salary increase that was deferred in 2011 and this year.

The proposed increase would give police and sheriff’s officials a 3 percent increase for both 2011 (retroactive from December 2011) and 2012 (effective in July).

The change would affect 15 people in the Police Department and eight in both the Fire Department and Sheriff Department.

Police Chief Robert White, who started late last year, is earning $167,466 in total annual salary, including $5,760 in yearly longevity pay for his 39 years of service. His base pay would go up to $177,641.

Jeremy P. Meyer was a reporter and editorial writer with The Denver Post until 2016. He worked at a variety of weeklies in Washington state before going to the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin as sports writer and then copy editor. He moved to the Yakima Herald-Republic as a feature writer, then to The Gazette in Colorado Springs as news reporter before landing at The Post. He covered Aurora, the environment, K-12 education, Denver city hall and eventually moved to the editorial page as a writer and columnist.

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